Cut off date fixed for migrants' citizenship 'rational, reasonable': CJI Chandrachud

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said the cut-off date of March 25, 1971 for citizenship after Assam Accord is reasonable because the Pakistani Army launched Operation Search light to curb the Bangladeshi nationalist movement in East Pakistan on March 26, 1971 and migrants before the operation were considered migrants of the Indian partition.

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said Section 6A was included with the objective of reducing the influx of migrants to India and dealing with those who had already migrated.

“The Assam Accord was a political solution to the issue of growing migration and Section 6A was a legislative solution. Section 6A is one more statutory intervention in the long list of legislation that balances the humanitarian needs of migrants of Indian Origin and the impact of such migration on economic and cultural needs of Indian States,” he said.

The CJI said the central government could have extended the application of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) (IMDT) Act 1983, to any other state by a notification.

“However, no such notification was issued indicating that the immigration to Assam presented the Union with a unique problem in terms of magnitude and impact. Though other states such as West Bengal (2216.7 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Tripura (856 km) and Mizoram (318 km) share a larger border with Bangladesh as compared to Assam (263 km), the magnitude of influx to Assam and its impact on the cultural and political rights of the Assamese and Tribal populations is higher,” the CJI said.

The data submitted by the petitioners indicates that the total number of immigrants in Assam is approximately 40 lakhs. It is 57 lakhs in West Bengal, 30 thousand in Meghalaya and 3 Lakh and 25 thousand in Tripura.

“The impact of forty lakh migrants in Assam may conceivably be greater than the impact of fifty-seven lakh migrants in West Bengal because of Assam’s lesser population and land area compared to West Bengal. Thus, the singling out of Assam is based on rational considerations,” the CJI said.

He held that the cut-off date of March 25, 1971 is also rational.

The CJI said migrants from Bangladesh after the said date were considered to be migrants of war and not partition and the cut-off date of March 25, 1971 is reasonable.

"Having held that both the cut-off date and the singling out of Assam is based on rational considerations, the next question is whether the yardsticks have a rational nexus with the object of the provision. The answer is in the affirmative,” the bench said.

The migration from East Pakistan to Assam was in great numbers after the partition of undivided India and since the migration from East Pakistan after Operation Search-Light would increase, the yardstick has nexus with the objects of (a) reducing migration and (b) conferring citizenship to migrants of Indian origin.

The CJI wrote, “Section 6A would be under-inclusive only when all those who are similarly situated with respect to the object and on the application of the rational yardstick are not included. Similarly, the provision would be overinclusive only when those who are not similarly situated with respect to these two parameters are included. That not being the case, Section 6A is neither under-inclusive nor over-inclusive”.

The CJI said he is unable with respect to agree with the observation of Justice Pardiwala that the purpose of Section 6A(3) is merely the speedy and effective identification of foreigners of the 1966-71 stream.

The petitioners submitted that Section 6A(2) is unconstitutional because the provision does not prescribe a procedure for conferring citizenship to those who migrated before 1 January 1966, unlike Section 6A(3) which prescribes a procedure for conferring citizenship to those who migrated between 1966-1971.

The CJI said Section 6A is a substantive provision conferring citizenship on persons who migrated from Bangladesh to Assam. He said that the provision provides that persons who migrated from Bangladesh to Assam before January 1, 1966 shall be deemed to be citizens of India from January 1, 1966.

Section 6A says those who came to Assam on or after January 1, 1966 but before March 25, 1971 from specified territories, including Bangladesh, in accordance with the Citizenship Act amended in 1985, and since then are residents of the northeastern state, must register themselves under section 18 for acquiring Indian citizenship. As a result, the provision fixes March 25, 1971 as the cut-off date for granting citizenship to Bangladeshi migrants in Assam.

Section 6A was inserted into the 1955 Act in furtherance of a Memorandum of Settlement called the ‘Assam Accord’ signed on August 15, 1985, by the then Rajiv Gandhi Government with the leaders of the Assam Movement to preserve and protect the Assamese culture, heritage, linguistic and social identity.